MOSCOW. Dec 3 (Interfax) - The police have busted a group that was dealing drugs in several Russian regions, Russian Interior Ministry spokesperson Irina Volk told Interfax on Tuesday.
"Officers of the Russian Interior Ministry's Main Drug Control Directorate acting together with their colleagues from the Nizhny Novgorod and Chelyabinsk regions and the Grom special-task team have detained 14 members of a criminal group suspected of illegal production and distribution of narcotic drugs in several Russian regions," Volk said.
The detainees were operating drug labs in the Moscow region. They received orders via messengers and placed batches of one to three kilos of drugs in caches in the Moscow region.
"Couriers took the drugs and delivered them to Russian regions for distribution. The accountant divided profits between members of the criminal group," Volk said.
Criminal cases were opened on counts of the establishment of a criminal group, illegal production and distribution of drugs, and the attempt to commit crime.
"As a result of investigative procedures, one of the suspects driving a car without license plates was detained near a shopping mall on Larina Street in Nizhny Novgorod. An inspection of the car trunk revealed a drain pump containing a plastic bag with about one kilogram of powder, which the lab identified as methylephedrine," Volk said.
Early this year, two couriers carrying about four kilograms of drugs were detained in the Nizhny Novgorod region. The other 11 suspects were busted in the Chelyabinsk, Ryazan, and Moscow regions, and in the city of Moscow.
"In all, investigators seized over 25 kilograms of forbidden substances," she said.
The court put all suspects under arrest.